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The Carlos Tevez affair: then there were two

Manchester United said farewell yesterday to a second international striker in the space of 10 days. Following the confirmation that they would take Real Madrid's £80m bid for Cristiano Ronaldo, they announced that Carlos Tevez would not be accepting the Premier League champions' offer of a five-year contract to make him one of their "highest-paid" players after two years on loan.

The disappointment among United supporters will be considerable, and Possibly noisier than the weary shrugs that greeted the Ronaldo announcement. Tevez remained so popular that chants of of "Fergie, Fergie, sign him up!" were a feature of last season's title run-in. The club did their best to sound piqued. "Disappointingly," a United statement read, "his advisers informed the club that, despite the success he has enjoyed during one of the club's most successful periods, he does not wish to continue playing for Manchester United."